Q. What is the minimum gift level to establish an endowment?A. For an endowed scholarship to be fully funded, a minimum of $15,000 is required. With your signed endowment proposal, you may make payments within a five year period to reach the funded level.

Q. How long do I have to bring the endowment to the funding level?
A. The endowment must reach the minimum funding level within five (5) years of the date the agreement was signed.

Q. If I am unable to bring the endowment to the funding level within the five year period, what happens to the funds?
A. MVNU will roll the contributions into the Christians Helping Others in Christian Education (CHOICE) endowed scholarship or another endowment that closely meets the established criteria.

Q. Can I name my endowment?
A. Yes, the endowment can be named after your favorite professor, a relative or even yourself. It can be named to honor or memorialize someone special in your life.

Q. Can I specify the purpose for my endowment?
A. Yes, but it must coincide with the mission of MVNU.

Q. Can I select the students to receive scholarships from my endowment?
A. No. All scholarship awards are made by the Development Office. According to federal guidelines, any money named for a specific student is considered a payment to the student's account and is not tax deductible for the donor. You may, however, specify awarding criteria to assist a broad group of students, for example: male students, students from a certain state, county, or town, or students whose parents are MVNU alums.

Q. Can awards to students be made from endowments with less $15,000 in funds?
A. Scholarship awards cannot be made until the endowment reaches the $15,000 level with enough interest growth to make the award.

Q. Are scholarships immediately available after an endowment is at the funding level?
A. No. The endowed scholarship fund needs an opportunity for investment growth so that when scholarship funds are awarded there is no invasion of the corpus.

Q. If the value of my endowment drops below the corpus, will awards to students continue?
A. Awarding of funds will discontinue until the market value exceeds the amount originally contributed to the endowment.

Q. Who is responsible for managing the endowment investments and administering the endowment program?
A. The Mount Vernon Nazarene University Foundation governs all funds and is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the program and the individual endowments. The MVNU Development office is responsible for managing the establishment of endowments and maintaining communications with the donors.

Q. What type of funds may be used to establish an endowment?
A. Gifts of cash, stock, annuities, and charitable remainder trusts may be used to establish an endowment. Real estate, life insurance, and personal property may also be given as long as they meet the requirements as described in the MVNU's Gift Acceptance Policy.